Step 5: Remove bulb sockets and wires

Step 6: Assembly is the reverse of disassembly

Just like any set of car DYI instructions, assembly is the reverse of disassembly. 1. Plug the lights into the new tail light (or old one if you wer...

Like many jeep owners, I'm proud of my jeep. I like it to look good too. However, by jeep standards looking good is relative.
Covered with mud? Looks great!
A little scratch or ding from your last offroading trip? Adds character!
A busted tail light because you were stupid and smashed the garbage can into it? Not acceptable, that has to go.

As you can see, I put a nice hole directly through my tail light. I could have taped it over or generally kludged it together, but that kind of stuff is only acceptable on jeeps if you broke it doing something interesting. Smashing it with the garbage can is decidedly NOT interesting. To fix it I needed a new tail light housing. In this set of instructions I'll go through how to remove the old broken assembly, remove all the lights from it, and then install the new tail light assembly. It's relatively straight forward and can be done by a single person in about 30 minutes unless you're terrified of picking up a wrench (side note: if that's the case, you may want to get something other than a jeep). This is about as simple as it gets for car maintenance. It does take some tools that you may not have lying around but it will be much cheaper to buy the tools than it would be to pay somebody to fix this.

This set of instructions works for Jeep Cherokees from '97 to '01. It will also give you access to the bulbs if you just need to replace one of them. From what I understand, '84 to '96 Cherokees are similar, but can be more tricky because they have an extra bolt to be removed. Due to the placement of that bolt it can be harder to remove. I'll mention where that bolt is when I get to the part where the instructions diverge, but if you have an older jeep you're going to have to figure that out on your own.

One more thing before we get started, some people (mostly people uneducated in the ways of the jeep) confuse the normal Cherokee with the Grand Cherokee. If yours does not look look like the nice boxy beauty in the second picture these instructions aren't for you.